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Iran reaches deal to purchase 100 Boeing planes

US government still needs to approve $17 billion contract to update Iranian passenger jet fleet

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Sunday it has reached an agreement with American aerospace giant Boeing to purchase 100 aircraft to renew its aging fleet, though the deal must still be approved by the US government.

The Islamic Republic has ordered about 200 planes from three Western manufacturers since mid-January, when economic sanctions were lifted following a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s civil aviation authority, said in remarks published by the daily Iran newspaper that an agreement had been reached with Boeing for the purchase but said the deal was contingent on US Treasury permission.

Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, however, said Sunday that he hoped the initial accord could be completed within a month.

He told the Fars news agency that the deal would be “the largest and most important contract” with the United States — barring military deals — since before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A nuclear agreement in July with six world powers, including the US, has lifted some of the economic sanctions on Iran in return for limits on the Islamic Republic’s controversial atomic program.